Up to the last moment of the party I was using social media as much as possible to get the word out there as well as using postcard promo cards. So here's a quick run-down on how I got the word out.
First of all, I had 5,000 promo cards produced. I made sure to target comic book stores/anime stores/Japanese pop culture stores. Luckily Free Comic Book Day happened less than a week from when I got my cards so using Google, I figured which local comic book stores in the LA area had events plan and spend half a day putting out cards. I also heard of an event out in Rancho Cucamonga, CA where thousands of people show up for free hot dogs, signings with comic book artists/writers. Made sense to advertise there. Through a cosplayer, I was able to talk to the store owner about having my cards at their event. On that day, over 2,200 people stood in line for 45 minutes to get in. Close to 1,000 of my cards were picked up.
I've also discovered there were two cosplay picnic gatherings so I made sure to contact the promoters and offer my book as a raffle prize. The first one was in Fullerton, CA and the other in Newbury Park,CA. I attended both events and bought my Canon G9 to record the people's reaction to the book. Obviously I can sit and talk about my book on video but there's more of an impact when fans and cosplayers are excited about the book.
Besides handing out promo cards, video was used. For people unfamiliar with the location of Royal/T, a maid cafe/gallery space in Culver City, I knew I would need to make a video where I walk through the facilities and explain my plans for the party. Many people don't get the idea of Royal/T until they visit it so I made sure to showcase their gallery, the cafe, their gift shop as well as show the viewer where I plan to have the DJ booth, the slideshow, etc. I made sure to release the video 2 weeks before the party. On the week before, I made a personal vblog (video-blog) to talk to the fans about the upcoming event.
Besides video, I use Model Mayhem to look through my contact list and find those located in Southern California and to tag them with my event. There's a few select well-known cosplayers on the site and I invited them as well. Instead of direct email, I use a "Tag" which everyone can see. Using Flickr, I'm a part of many cosplay groups and I post on their forums about my event - about 15 groups were covered. Using Meetup.org, I found out who the local meetups are for cosplay and anime and contacted their administrators with the info. For twitter, everywhere I went to put out promo cards or to go to the lab to check the prints, everything is tweeted as well as Facebook and MySpace.
Another resource I used was local blogs that cover events or are in similar circles. A few months ago, I found a LA Weekly writer on twitter and I sent her info resulting in a write up before the event and after. as well as an interview from YokosuNews.com.
At the party I asked people how they found me. Many pointed out they've been following me on twitter and facebook, others mention they picked up the promo cards and others pointed to the YouTube videos. The one thing I notice that most were from online presence.
With roughly 5,000 people following me, I knew many wouldn't be able to make it so I had two G9 cameras circulating the party to get video and edited together a video and upload it that night. These were not shot professionally nor edit in that manner for the simple fact that I thought folks would respond better to a "raw" feel and not so polished. No need to drag around a 5DMKII when a simple G9 camera could do.
The party is a success in my eyes. Roughly 300 people showed up and I sold out of my book - I had 30 copies. Given that I had originally estimated 5% of the people buying the book, I was surprised that it was closer to 10%. There were a few familiar faces that came by. Matthew Jordan Smith, Pat from Miauhaus Studios,and TJ from Sync Productions were among the photography community who showed up. One couple bought four books and another cosplayer flew in from New Jersey for the party - he's seen in the video as Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII
One interesting thing I noted was close to half of my transactions were done by credit card. I used Paypal Virtual Terminal to process credit cards.
This weekend, the 9th largest anime convention in America, Fanime Con takes place in San Jose, CA. With 15,000 estimated con goers, my expectation is to sell between 100-150 books which is just 1% of the crowd. I plan on bringing 250 books. At the convention there's a section devoted to artist selling their wares. I'll be at a table selling my book for 30 hours over 4 days.
Based on how the first con goes, I know how many books I should ship to other conventions across the country.
I'll let y'all know next week how this first con (convention) goes. My prediction is to sell 1,000 copies by the end of the year and another 1,000 next year. We'll see how well this experiment goes.
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